1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus and method for making and photographing computer graphic images and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for making photographic computer graphic colored images in a manner maintaining a designated order of location from foreground to backround for each of the items in the graphic image to be photographed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The memory requirement for computer graphic color images is generally determined by the spatial and color intensity resolution of the images. Thus, large computers with large memory capacities are ordinarily required for computer graphic colored images in order to store the many bits of information required to designate the brightness and color of each pixel of the image. Computer graphic images may be suitably displayed on any conventional viewing screen such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), and a photograph of the displayed image may be made in a manner as is well known in the art. Small computers generally do not have the memory base or the processing power to deal with images satisfactorily in this way and, therefore, are generally unsatisfactory for providing computer graphic colored images for photographic reproduction. One such method and apparatus as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 368,711, by Alice M. d'Entremont et al., filed Apr. 15, 1982, discloses a method and apparatus utilizing a small computer and a limited computer memory for developing computer graphic color images on a photosensitive material. This system, however, does not provide a capability for maintaining a designated order of location from foreground to background in case any items in the graphic image overlap.
Therefore, it is a primary object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus utilizing a small computer and a limited computer memory for developing computer graphic images on a photosensitive material wherein the items which make up the graphic image may overlap with respect to each other in a designated order of location from foreground to background.
Other objects of the invention will be, in part, obvious and will, in part, appear hereinafter. The invention accordingly comprises a mechanism and system possessing the construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which are exemplified in the following detailed disclosure.